Tsunami alert

Anticipating a “silver tsunami” of aging baby boomers who will likely live longer and be healthier than previous generations, developers have built thousands of new senior housing units along the Gulf Coast in the past five years.

Increasing rental and occupancy rates — especially among assisted-living communities — has fueled an influx of capital into the sector as well. That in turn has led to more development and compressed capitalization rates -- a measure of investment yield — to their lowest level in decades.

The surge in new senior housing, led by assisted-living and memory care communities, comes as the demographics for such development have never been more favorable.